Prague, Part 1

Prague Travel Blog

The journey started in New Haven, Connecticut. I was trying to get on the bus to the airport while saying a tearful goodbye to my parents, whom I wouldn't be spending the holiday trinity with (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter). My mom had a doctor's appointment, plus I didn't want them driving me all the way to LaGuardia since NYC traffic to the airport is beyond horrendous! It was a long ride to the airport since there were so many stops.

The flight was uneventful, even with the layover in Zurich and the delay. I arrived at Prague's Ruzyne airport where I was met by my roommate and the son of the TEFL course's director. There wasn't much to see on the way to the apartment, but I got an earful.

My spiffy Fanta bottle on a bench in OTS.

I soon found out that the apartment had internet which was a blessing since I had brought my laptop. Andy (my roommate) was Welsh, and I knew we'd have an interesting time communicating.

Well, the month with Andy turned out to be interesting, to say the least. But it didn't take me long to fall for Prague. I loved its charm (though I could've done without the insane amount of tourists that I had to contend with). I did get my wallet stolen though, and was that ever a hassle!

Thanksgiving wasn't that great. We went out to this Spanish-themed place for a little while, then Jeff (a classmate) and I went out to find phones to call home. Well, I learned that my mom was in the hospital, then the phone card died. I later learned that she was fine.

Marketta, Jeff, CJ, Jakob and me in a bar...somewhere in Prague.

After the phone-debacle, Jeff and I went off in search of food. But by then, the bars stopped serving food. We ended up at a KFC... the one on Kaprova by Old Town Square. But hey, at least it was poultry.

I met a lot of interesting people (both students and classmates). We discovered this great little bar called Jama that showed NFL games and had cheap enough beer and pretty good food. I took everyone there that came to visit (my parents, Julie and her boyfriend and Christian and Jon). Got to watch my Patriots, and actually cheered for Dallas against the Giants once. BLECH! I'll never do that again. Go Pats, then the Giants (they're my Dad's team). There was a lot of football watching, except for the Super Bowl.

A tree in Kutna Hora

One native classmate brought us all to Lucerne, which is a club. It was 80's night, and for the most part, it was fun! At the end of the night, everyone left, leaving me, Jeff and Emre in Wenceslas Square. The metros weren't open yet, and neither Jeff nor I knew our night trams. Thank goodness the food/drink kiosks were open all night. But it was fun, since Jeff called his dad a lot just to check on the Notre Dame score.

Once I decided to stay in Prague instead of moving to Poland, I got a cell phone and SIM card. Yay! Then it was time to move. At the end of the course I moved from Prague 6 (Dejvice) to Prague 5 (Kosire)- Postovka. It was a nice little apartment with no closet, but electric stove, oven and toaster.

Restaurant in Kutna Hora where me, Brad and the LA couple ate dinner

This is an excerpt from an email I sent to my parents. We (my parents and I) had my ATM and credit card replaced and sent to home (in the US) and mis padres simpaticos sent the cards to me via FedEx. Here's the Misadventure in Zlicin story...

I looked up the address for FedEx the day before yesterday and it said it was in Zlicin (part of Prague, the same part where I live...Prague 5). Anyway, so I took the Metro to Zlicin and found the mall, wondered around there just seeing if it was there. Of course not. Saw a shopping center nearby, went there...not there either. Mind you, it's cold and snowing. So, since I had the phone # for FedEx with me, I called them to get directions.

inside the Bone Church

She repeated them 2x...leave it to me to not remember it correctly. Wondered around for about 1/2 hour before I found a map...studied it and kept walking. Thought I was going the right way, but I wanted to make sure so I turned around and checked another map. Thought I had it right...kept walking. About an hour later I figured out that I was helplessly/hopelessly lost. But I did find a bus stop. I called FedEx back and they had no clue where I was. So I waited for the bus to take me back to Zlicin...half an hour later. It was a short ride back, and I finally saw a street sign and I crossed the street that I wanted at the very beginning!!!!!!!! So I got back there, looked up and down the street.

inside the Bone Church

Wondered down the street since there was nothing the other way. Well, that was fruitless. So there was another 1/2 hour gone. By the time I found the place I was ready to quit! I was going to go back to Andel and get a cab from there. But I found it...frozen and half-numb. Never did get the cup of tea that I was promised, but by then, I didn't care. I just wanted home.

And, while living at Postovka, I found a really cool mall at Andel (which means angel in Czech, from what I remember). They had a Carrefour (now a Tesco) that was a super Walmart type store on two floors, a place to get contact lens solution (which I thankfully don't need anymore), an Internet place and a movie theater (that I never actually went to).

Statue outside the Bone Church

There is a place outside of Prague called Kutna Hora. They have something called an Ossuary (Bone Church) and the inside is decorated with bones!!! It contains the bones of some 40,000 people (according to the official website). I started the trip with Brad (Jeff's roommate, he took the TEFL course the session before mine).

This is an excerpt of the email I sent to friends & family about Kutna Hora. I fixed the punctuation since the original email was sent from the computer place at Andel (and I hadn't yet figured out how to switch the computer language from CZ to EN). The Kutna Hora trip took place on 12-30-05.

On the train, we met a couple from LA, so we all stuck together for the day, which was good. It was a decent train ride, only about an hour.

Inside the Bone Church

It wasn't very scenic, but it went quickly enough. Once there, we walked to the Ossuary or the "Bone Church". We were hoping for more, but it was cool enough. From there, we tried going to a church across the street. I had my nose buried in my guidebook, seeing what it said about the church. Then I heard Brad say "She does" and he got my attention. He pointed to a man by the church and he asked me if I spoke German. Yay!! Anyway, I found out that the church was closed for repairs and that the city center was 2km away. We walked there and finally found the restaurant that Brad was looking for. I had goulash soup in a bread bowl, which was good except that it was a little on the cool side. The beer is good, just don't ask me what it was. It was a local brew. I took a few pictures of the inside since it was cool.

We had to make a mad dash to switch trains...somewhere outside of Prague. And that's going to end this blog. I'll start the next one beginning with New Year's Eve...Praha style.